NVIDIA Co-founder Gives Back to His Alma Mater, Donates $400 Million to Build the Fastest Supercomputer in the Academic World
On July 21, the University of Florida and NVIDIA announced the establishment of a public-private partnership. The two parties jointly invested US$70 million (approximately RMB 488 million) to build the fastest AI supercomputer in the world's universities.
On July 21, the University of Florida announced a public-private partnership with NVIDIA to provide students, faculty, staff, and researchers with the most powerful AI training and tools.Build the fastest AI supercomputer in the world's universities.
To those who have provided strong support and financial donations for this cause,It was Nvidia co-founder and University of Florida alumnus Chris Malachowsky .
The University of Florida said the move will strengthen the school's research capabilities to address some of the world's toughest challenges, create unprecedented AI training and tools for underrepresented groups, and provide momentum for transforming the future of the workforce.
Investing 70 million US dollars to build the fastest AI supercomputer in universities
The University of FloridaA total of US$70 million (approximately RMB 488 million) in investment was obtained.
This includes a donation of US$25 million (approximately RMB 174 million) from alumnus Chris Malachowsky, US$25 million in hardware, software, training and services donated by NVIDIA, and US$20 million in investment from the school.
The University of Florida will use the funds to create an AI-centric data center.Strive to become the fastest AI supercomputer among higher education institutions in the world.The University of Florida has since become the first university in the United States to adopt DGX A100.
In addition, the school has pledged to hire 100 faculty members focused on artificial intelligence who will integrate AI into teaching and research.
Nvidia's official website stated that the University of Florida AI supercomputer,It will be operational in early 2021.
The third generation of HiPerGator, which was built at a huge cost, will use NVIDIA's most advanced AI software and 140 Nvidia DGX A100 systemsand 1,120 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs Integrated with high-performance NVIDIA Mellanox HDR 200Gb/s InfiniBand networking,Delivers 700 petaFLOPS of AI performance.
In the latest Top500 supercomputer ranking, Japan's Fugaku supercomputer ranks first with a computing speed of 415 petaFLOPS, while the new generation HiperGator's 700 petaFLOPS far exceeds this number.
Such high-performance HiperGator will provide faculty and staff at the University of Florida and beyond with AI tools that can be used in a variety of fields, including but not limited to sea level rise, population aging, data security, personalized medicine, urban transportation, and food insecurity.
Outstanding alumnus Chris: Spending $25 million
In this collaboration, UF alumnus Chris Malachowsky donated $25 million to his alma mater, which can be said to be very generous.
Chris Malachowsky was born in 1958. He graduated from the University of Florida in 1983 with a degree in electrical engineering and received a master's degree from Santa Clara University in 1986.
His father was a doctor and wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a doctor. When he enrolled at the University of Florida, he chose engineering as a major in order to enter the pre-med program.
However, he unexpectedly found himself particularly interested in engineering after coming into contact with it, so he decided to give up the direction of medicine.
In the field of engineering, he has achieved remarkable results.Along the way, he became a recognized authority on integrated circuit design and methodology, and holds nearly 40 patents to date.
Earlier in his career, Chris held engineering and technical leadership positions at HP and Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle in 2009).
While at HP, Chris was responsible for the design of CPU chips. Later, he met his colleague Curtis Priem at Sun Microsystems and Jensen Huang who worked for a chip supplier.
In 1993, the three of them foresaw that the then-nascent GPU would become a new wave, so they decided to co-found NVIDIA, with Chris serving as senior vice president of engineering and operations and senior technical director.
Over the years, Chris has been instrumental in helping NVIDIA grow from a startup to a global leader in visual and parallel computing.He played an important role in managing, defining and driving the company's core technologies.
As an Nvidia executive, he led many functions,Including all aspects of IT, operations and corporate product engineering.Most recently, he led a research organization at NVIDIA, an organization responsible for developing strategic technologies to help drive the company's future growth and success.
In addition to his technical achievements, he also has an artistic flair. In 2009, he won an Emmy Award for the film he helped produce, Inheritance, which also won the 2009 Best Documentary Award.
Today, 62-year-old Chris has a successful career, but he never forgets the kindness of his alma mater in the past. He generously gives back to his alma mater and is worthy of being an outstanding alumnus.
References:
– https://news.ufl.edu/2020/07/nvidia-partnership/
– https://news.developer.nvidia.com/uf-launches-ai-partnership-with-nvidia/
– https://youtu.be/I1pukngFY5U
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